COIMBATORE: Police personnel stood guard as panchayat officials started work on Monday to construct a drainage channel from a Dalit settlement through a locality where caste Hindus live in Pooluvapalayam in Ottarpalayam panchayat in Annur taluk.
Tension prevailed in the village in the last few weeks as some caste Hindus were objecting to laying the drainage channel. While the caste Hindus allegedly reasoned that sewage will overflow during rain, residents from the Arunthathiyar community said they are being discriminated against based on caste.
V Palanisamy, a person from the SC community, said, “We wanted the channel badly for our locality, where 60 families live. During the rainy season, our area gets inundated. Following our continuous demands, the panchayat in March allocated Rs 12.46 lakh to construct the channel for 210 metres and the tender process was completed in May. However, the work did not start due to objection from a section of caste Hindus.”
P Raman, Annur union secretary of TPDK, said, “There is a drainage channel in the area where caste Hindus live. As per the plan, the new channel will be connected to the existing one. However, with an intention to discriminate, they do not want the drainage from our area to pass through theirs. So they were objecting to the plan citing the issue of overflow. As the issue garnered momentum, officials proposed to increase the channel’s depth to prevent overflow, but they still opposed it.”
Mettupalayam DSP S Balaji said, “We, along with revenue and rural development officials, held peace talks on June 12. Members of the caste Hindu community accepted the plan. But, they again raised objections and wanted the work to be stopped. Now, the work has commenced with the protection of 40 police personnel. Police will be deployed until the work is completed.” Panchayat secretary Arun said the work will be completed in two weeks.